Sikkim chief minister P. S. Tamang (Golay) on Thursday said the state government would appoint nannies for a year to take care of babies aged between one and two of women government employees as part of the initiative to increase the declining fertility rate in the state.

Speaking at the pre-Lochar celebrations of the Tamang community, Golay said the nanny scheme was in place of the earlier proposal to set up childcare units in government offices for working mothers since it was found to be cost-intensive.

“We are giving one-year maternity leave for government employees, but the question may arise as to what to do after one year. Hence, we have decided to hire childcare assistants who will be deployed to take care of the newly-born at home for one year once their mothers return to duty after completing the maternity leave,” he said.

The chief minister said the government would hire women aged above 40 by relaxing the recruitment rules to take care of the babies and they would be paid a monthly salary of Rs 10,000. The government would recruit mostly widows and women from economically weaker sections of society as nannies.

Golay said the nannies would be required to only take care of the babies and they would not be allowed to be engaged in doing any other household chores.

According to the National Family Health Survey 2019- 2021, the fertility rate of Sikkim is the lowest in the country. From the fertility rate of 2.01 in 2009, it has come down to 1.1 now. The national fertility rate has also come down from 2.6 to 2.0 during the same period.

To buck the trend of the declining fertility rate, the chief minister had on January 3 announced that his government would provide incentives to Sikkimese mothers willing to bear more than two children.

The Golay government has also started a scheme to provide financial assistance of Rs 3 lakh to women for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment to help increase the fertility rate.